| name | brain-setup |
| description | Bootstrap the Open Project Brain Standard into the current project — prefer `brain init` (ensure BRAIN.md, scaffold empty brain brainRoot-aware, default-wire CLAUDE.md + AGENTS.md). Optionally install a pre-commit hook and a Claude Code SessionStart hook. |
brain-setup
This skill bootstraps a project into the Open Project Brain Standard: it drops in the protocol entry point and the brain/ skeleton so the brain-page and brain-ingest skills (and the brain CLI) have something to work with. It is idempotent — safe to run again on an already-initialized project.
Preferred one-shot path: from the project root run:
node <brain-page-bundle>/bin/brain.mjs init
That command ensures BRAIN.md, scaffolds empty brain data (brainRoot-aware), and default-wires CLAUDE.md + AGENTS.md (create if missing; if present, only update/append the marked brain block — never whole-file overwrite). Use the steps below when you need the optional pre-commit hook, the optional Claude Code SessionStart hook, or are explaining the flow.
NEVER hand-edit any file under the brain directory. All reads and writes MUST go through the brain CLI. Manual edits are unsupported and illegitimate. This scaffold creates the brain once; from then on every read and write is a brain subcommand. There is no validator and nothing at the file layer can catch a bad manual edit, so a hand edit silently breaks the brain's invariants.
Run this from the target project's root. The skill bundle ships the templates under assets/ and the hook under hooks/; resolve <this-skill-bundle> to the directory this SKILL.md lives in.
Core invariant: there is exactly one brain, at the resolved location. The brain's data directory is location-independent — it lives at ./brain by default, but a MindMux-managed project redirects it via brainRoot in ./.mindmux/preferences.json (often an absolute path to an external sidecar directory). This skill MUST resolve that location before scaffolding, and MUST NOT create a second, local ./brain when a brainRoot is set — doing so produces a split brain (an empty local skeleton shadowing the real external brain). The BRAIN.md protocol document is separate: it always lives in the project root regardless of where the brain data lives.
Steps
1. Ensure BRAIN.md (the protocol document) is in the project root
BRAIN.md is the read/write contract that the agent reads to learn how to use the brain. It always belongs in the project root, independent of where the brain data lives.
- Present → leave it untouched (never overwrite project content).
- Absent → copy
assets/BRAIN.md → ./BRAIN.md.
Do not stop here just because BRAIN.md exists — its presence says nothing about whether the brain data is set up. Always continue to step 2 to resolve and check the data location.
2. Resolve the brain data location, then scaffold there only if empty
First, resolve where the brain data actually lives — never assume ./brain. Ask the CLI:
node <brain-page-bundle>/bin/brain.mjs brain-dir
(The brain-page skill carries the CLI; in the brain.md source repo it is skills/brain-page/bin/brain.mjs, globally it is e.g. ~/.claude/skills/brain-page/bin/brain.mjs.)
brain brain-dir reads brainRoot from ./.mindmux/preferences.json when present (otherwise falls back to ./brain) and prints, on separate lines: the resolved directory, a human-readable origin, source: (brainRoot or default), exists: (true/false), and populated: (true/false — whether the location already holds a root page or any page under pages/). Read those lines instead of guessing or stat-ing by hand.
Branch on the resolved state:
-
populated: true → the brain already exists. Do NOT scaffold. Tell the user the brain lives at <resolved dir>. If source: brainRoot, make it explicit: "this project's brain is redirected to an external directory (<resolved dir>) and is managed there — leaving it untouched." Then continue to step 3 (wire) and the optional hooks (steps 4–5). Never lay down a local ./brain in this case.
-
populated: false → scaffold the skeleton into the resolved directory (the brainRoot target when redirected, otherwise ./brain). Copy assets/brain/ → <resolved dir>/ — this brings the six root page templates (background / architecture / flow / mindmap / stack / roadmap), a generated index.md, and an empty pages/ directory. Copy each destination file only if it does not already exist (never overwrite). Never create a second local ./brain when source: brainRoot — always scaffold at the resolved path. After copying, run reindex so the index reflects the present pages:
node <brain-page-bundle>/bin/brain.mjs reindex
(reindex resolves the same location, so it writes the index in the right place automatically.)
No example pages are scaffolded; the page format is documented in BRAIN.md and the brain-page skill.
3. Wire the agent-config files via brain wire (default both files)
The project's agent-config files must point at BRAIN.md so agents pick up the contract. Wiring is deterministic — done by the CLI, not by hand. Do not hand-write @import lines or template paragraphs. Do not ask which agents to wire — default to both config files unless the user explicitly requests a subset.
Run (default — no --agent required):
node <brain-page-bundle>/bin/brain.mjs wire
Equivalent: wire --agent all. Optional subset: --agent claude-code or comma-separated list. Supported ids: claude-code, codex, opencode, cursor, pi, all.
What the command does (so you can explain it):
- Default maps to both
./CLAUDE.md (claude-code block with @import) and ./AGENTS.md (shared block for codex / opencode / cursor / pi).
- Writes one unified, neutral, self-contained brain block — wrapped in
<!-- BEGIN brain.md --> … <!-- END brain.md --> — that tells the agent to read ./BRAIN.md, states the session-companion rules (load brain at task start; capture decisions/constraints when they settle during coding; skip pure implementation; reverse/update when overturning; all via the brain CLI; never hand-edit), and notes the four brain skills are installed globally.
- Both files get the same block body; the only difference is that
CLAUDE.md additionally carries an @import ./BRAIN.md line (Claude Code-specific — other agents don't understand @import).
- Idempotent via the markers: absent file → created; existing file without markers → block appended (preserve user content); existing marked block → replaced in place (upgrades, never duplicates). Never whole-file overwrite outside the markers.
4. Optionally install a pre-commit hook
Offer to install the local index + link backstop (no CI required). Only if the project is a git repository (.git/ exists) and the user agrees:
- Copy
hooks/pre-commit → .git/hooks/pre-commit and make it executable (chmod +x).
- If a
.git/hooks/pre-commit already exists, do not overwrite it — tell the user and show them the hook contents so they can merge it manually.
The hook runs reindex → lint-links on every commit and folds any index changes back in. (There is deliberately no validator — correctness is guaranteed by the CLI being the only way to write.)
5. Optionally install a Claude Code SessionStart hook
Offer a project-local SessionStart hook so Claude Code sessions start with a compact brain list-pages snapshot. Never write ~/.claude/settings.json — a global hook would fire in projects that have no brain. Do not hand-edit .claude/settings.json for this; the CLI merge is the installer.
Only if the user agrees:
node <brain-page-bundle>/bin/brain.mjs install-hooks
Reverse with … uninstall-hooks. Both are idempotent: install copies hooks/session-start → .claude/hooks/brain-session-start and merges a SessionStart command into .claude/settings.json without clobbering other settings or duplicating the command; uninstall removes only that command and the copied script.
The hook itself only shells out to brain brain-dir and brain list-pages. It no-ops when populated: is not true, and any failure exits 0 with no output (convenience layer, not a hard dependency). It does not inject page bodies, and it does not install UserPromptSubmit / Stop hooks.
After setup
The scaffold leaves the brain empty — six root page templates plus an empty pages/. The valuable next step is to seed it with real project knowledge, and that is exactly what the brain-bootstrap skill does:
Recommend the user run the brain-bootstrap skill next. On an existing (brownfield) project it reads the code, docs, and git log to draft the six root pages and capture the key historical decisions; on a near-empty (greenfield) project it interviews the user to seed background and friends. brain-setup does not run it automatically — initialization and knowledge-seeding are separate steps, so the user stays in control of what gets written.
Also point them at: read BRAIN.md, then use the brain-page skill to author or modify pages directly and the brain-ingest skill to digest scattered input into the brain. Every read and write goes through the brain CLI — never hand-edit a brain file.
